Historical Context
The martyrdom of Hermolaus and his companions belongs to the Diocletianic (Great) Persecution, the most severe of the Roman persecutions of Christians. Nicomedia, an imperial residence and a center of the persecution, was the site of mass executions of Christians; the synaxarion tradition records that some 20,000 Christians were burned alive in a church there in 303, an event commemorated separately on December 28. Hermolaus, Hermippus, and Hermocrates were among the few who survived that massacre and afterward lived in hiding in remote places.
The historical record for these figures is bound up with that of Pantaleon of Nicomedia, whose surviving acts are largely legendary. The Catholic Encyclopedia regards the miraculous lives (vitae) of Pantaleon as without value as historical sources, and the Eastern tradition differs from later Western versions — notably, the Eastern accounts lack the visible apparition of Christ in Hermolaus's form that appears in the Western tradition during Pantaleon's tortures.
The Conversion of Pantaleon
Hermolaus is described in the tradition as a holy priest of the church at Nicomedia, and in later literature as a bishop of that church. He encountered the young Pantaleon — son of a Christian mother, Eubula, and a wealthy pagan father, Eustorgius — who had drifted from the faith of his childhood while pursuing medical studies and had become a physician of high standing, serving the Roman emperor.
Hermolaus challenged Pantaleon over the limits of his worldly learning. In the account preserved by St. Alphonsus Liguori (Victories of the Martyrs, 1888), Hermolaus is quoted as asking, 'But, my friend, of what use are all thy acquirements in this art, since thou art ignorant of the science of salvation?', convincing him that Christ was the better physician. Through this counsel Pantaleon returned to the Christian faith, which he afterward confirmed by healing, distributing his inherited wealth to the poor, and ultimately by martyrdom.
By the tradition, Hermolaus remained alive while Pantaleon's torture was under way and was himself martyred, together with his two companions Hermippus and Hermocrates, only shortly before Pantaleon was beheaded.
